Alexander Graham Bell, whose name is so clearly associated with the invention and the development of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 3, 1847. He was educated at the Edinburgh and London universities, and on graduating went to Canada in 1870, in which country he spent two years endeavoring to decide on a vocation. Later he located in Boston, where he became professor of vocal physiology at the Boston university. It was during this period that he became interested in and made an exhaustive series of experiments culminating in an application for a patent which was granted February 14, 1876. The history of the invention, which is second in importance only to the electric telegraph, is well known to the public. Without going into details, it is only necessary to say that Mr. Bell, like all other successful inventors, had to face and overcome the popular prejudices, and had to protect his rights in the courts through interminable law suits. The place that the telephone fills in the social and commercial economy of the world to-day is also too well known to need emphasis. Professor Bell is also the inventor of the photophone, and is interested in the current scientific efforts of the American association to promote the teaching of the deaf and dumb. Scientific honors have been showered upon him in connection with his inventions. In 1881 the French government awarded him the Volta prize, and he is the founder of the Volta bureau. He is also the author of many scientific and educational monographs. CHARLES FRANCIS BRUSH.